Europe is experiencing a strong heat wave which, associated with drought, is one of the main causes of fires. Due to weather conditions and to avoid any risk, cities in the south of France have decided to cancel the traditional fireworks of 14th of July, the French national festival. The Iberian Peninsula is going through the worst drought of the millennium.
With heat and drought, southern French departments such as the Gard, Alpes-Maritimes and Bouches du Rhône have been facing fires since the beginning of summer in the northern hemisphere.
In the Gard, where the city of Nîmes is located, the drought started a month ago and the city council has already informed about the cancellation of the fires on the 14th of July.
“Nîmes City Council canceled the fireworks for two reasons. First to support firefighters who are trying to put out the fire in Haut-Gard. And the second reason is also, of course, to protect the residents of the city,” said Richard Flandin, assistant secretary of the prefecture, in charge of urban planning. “We cannot risk setting fire to the hills of the city of Nîmes,” he added.
The mistral, a strong wind that comes from the mountains, increases the risk of fires, which spread throughout the region.
In the town of Allauch, which is surrounded by hills and greenery in the department of Bouches du Rhône, fears of a fire outbreak also led to the cancellation of the show.
The decision could even create a precedent, explains Mayor Lionel de Cala, in an interview with the website of the France Info channel. “I think that fireworks in the summer, in the future, should only be done by coastal cities, at sea, with a risk that is much more limited. For us, in the middle of hills, I think we can’t run this anymore. risk, taking into account the periods of drought, which will increase”, he laments.
Almost all French municipalities celebrate the national holiday of 14 July, the day the revolutionaries took the Bastille prison in 1789, with popular balls and fireworks. The Allauch municipality plans to hold the annual fireworks show at Christmas, when there is less risk of fire.
Dry
Further south, the Iberian Peninsula has never been so dry in the last thousand years, according to experts. Temperatures above 40°C suffocate Portugal and Spain this Monday (11), and thermometers will rise even more in the coming days.
According to the Spanish meteorological agency (Aemet), mercury should reach 42°C this Monday in Extremadura (southwest Spain) and 41°C in Andalusia (south). Expected highs should exceed 35°C in the northwest of the country, where it is generally less hot.
This new wave, the second in a month, “is exceptional,” Aemet spokesman Rubén del Campo said on Monday. The heat started on Sunday (10) and could last “nine or ten days, making this one of the three longest heat waves that Spain has experienced since 1975”, the meteorologist explained to AFP.
“Climate change causes more frequent and more intense heat waves,” continued Del Campo, noting that the number of episodes has doubled in the last 12 years in the country.
According to Aemet, the most extreme temperatures will be recorded between Tuesday (12) and Thursday (14). The agency cannot predict whether the absolute temperature record recorded in Spain, of 47.4°C in Montoro, near Cordoba, in August 2021, will be broken.
Including the current heat wave, Spain has experienced five episodes of exceptionally high temperatures in the last eleven months. May 2022 was the hottest month since the beginning of the century in the country.
fires in Portugal
In Portugal, the thermometer rose to 44°C in some areas over the weekend, favoring fires. The most important in the city of Ourém, in the center of the country, was controlled this Monday.
Temperatures should have a slight drop this Monday across the country, but will rise again on Wednesday (13). In the region of Évora, in the southeast, 42°C are still expected according to the national meteorological agency.
In this context, the level of water reservoirs in Spain this Monday was at 45.3% of their total capacity, well below the average of the last ten years in this period, which used to be 65.7%.
